The Underground

"The Underground" in London really is underground--waaaay underground. There are all these immensely long escalators that it feels like you're riding for an hour until you fffffffffiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy reach the bottom. This picture doesn't really show just how immensely long they are, because I didn't quite realize it until we were halfway down, and by the time I fumbled my camera out of my purse, turned it on, aimed, framed, focused, and pushed the button, we were almost at the bottom. Seriously, when I was standing at the top of this escalator and staring down into the bowels of the earth, it felt like I was taking an escalator ride to Hades. It really seemed to be that long, and to go that far down.

Oh, and another thing. Apparently they've never heard of elevators in London. Sorry, apparently they've never heard of "lifts" in London. Because the Tube has none! There are all those escalators and even more staircases, but I never saw a single elevator--sorry, lift--in a Tube station. And there were all these people trying to drag huge, heavy suitcases up and down staircases (including me!), but no elevators. Lifts. The S-Train stations in Copenhagen all had elevators, easily accessible and always available. Thereby proving yet again that Danes are so much smarter and more efficient than the rest of the world :)

Chronicles of Copenhagen, Part 2

I was reading through my old Xanga website and I found this little blurb I posted about a really funny story from my Nordic Mythology class I took in Denmark. The funny thing is, I was just thinking about this particular anecdote not too long ago. I'll copy and paste the entry in its entirety for your edification.

February 9, 2006

Okay so I'm studying for my Nordic Mythology class and I found this story that strikes me as really funny. I don't know, maybe it's just my slightly screwy sense of humor, but I found this really funny. It's a Norse myth called "The Binding of the Wolf". (By the way, anything in parantheses is my explanation of characters and places and anything else the average person wouldn't know)

The Binding of the Wolf

The most terrible creature in Asgard (heaven, home of the gods) was the wolf Fenrir, who was brought up in Asgard, but grew so huge and fierce that in the end only Tyr dared to feed him. He was so menacing that they knew he must be bound, but every fetter which they laid on him was easily snapped. Finally, guided by the wisdom of Odin (the head god), the dwarfs forged a chain for him, made from the secret and impalpable things of the world--the roots of a mountain, the noise of a moving cat, and the breath of a fish. It seemed no more than a silken cord, yet no force could break it. The wolf thought it harmless, but he would not allow it to be laid upon him unless one of the gods placed a hand between his jaws as a hostage. Tyr alone was prepared to do this, and so the wolf was bound, the chain held, and the gods laughed -- all but Tyr, who lost his hand.

Isn't that funny? Okay, I know, I know, I'm weird. My sense of humor is slightly off to find that funny, but I do.

Well, I still think it's funny. :) I do have a slightly eccentric sense of humor, hence my appreciation for offbeat things like this and the character Aaron in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and movies like Snatch.

Chronicles of Copenhagen

I just replied to an email from my sister asking for advice about places to visit in Copenhagen, and suggestions for any "typical souvenirs" people buy in Denmark. A coworker of hers is going to Copenhagen for two days next week for work, and so my sister emailed me on her behalf asking for advice. Well, I don't think they quite had in mind the book I emailed back. I realize that she's only going to be in the city for two days, and since she's going for work she'll be busy most of the time, but I couldn't help myself! I LOVE THAT CITY!!!

But do you want to know the bad part? When I opened that email and read the message, I had to sit back and actively try to think of places to send this nameless, faceless co-worker of my sister's. I sat there for a minute thinking, and at first nothing came to mind! I spent four months in that city, I lived, breathed, loved Copenhagen and three years later I can't think of any of the main tourist attractions!

Luckily, however, after a minute a few of my favorite places came to mind, and once I started to list them they just kept coming, hence the really long email I ended up sending.

The whole process just made me really homesick for my city, so I pulled out my disks of pictures from that semester in CPH and started looking through them. I just can't say this enough, so here I go again: I LOVE COPENHAGEN!!!!!!!

The picture above is from that city and that semester, I don't know where I was in the city when I took it. I was on my way to the Black Diamond (the nickname for the National Library) at the very end of the term for the program's closing convocation when I took this, so it's somewhere in that general vicinity.

Wishing Well

I took this picture at an archaeology museum I visited in Denmark with my study abroad program. When archaeologists excavated this well, they discovered a surprise; all the gold necklaces, armbands, and bracelets that are shown displayed around the well were inside it. Apparently they had been tossed in as some sort of offering or sacrifice. Who knows, maybe it did function as a sort of wishing well, just as the wishing wells we throw coins in today.

Lights of the Arabesque

This is another particular favorite of mine. I took it at Tivoli in Copenhagen. Tivoli is an amusement park that opened in the mid-nineteenth century and is very charming, quaint, and beautiful. Lots of flowers and colorful paint and lights. The park has an Oriental theme, as that was the fad at the time Tivoli was created. This pagoda is in front of the bumper boat pond.